2024 I am already halfway through the year, and I still haven’t finished listening to all the great albums from last year. I just can’t catch up no matter how hard I try, and I believe you are the same.
Last year was often called a weak year for Chinese music, but after listening to it, you will find that this “weak year” may just be a lack of albums released by mainstream singers. If you count all types of music, there are still a lot of high-quality works emerging, and newcomers are also emerging in an endless stream, bringing many surprises.
In this article, we will talk about which albums were worth listening to last year, so as to find out what you missed and make up for the gaps. Put on your headphones and let's get started.
In my heart, if I were to find a song that can represent the past year, no song could be better than Zheng Yinong’s “Golden”.
You may not be familiar with this name, but you must have heard of the song “New Creation” which became popular last year with the movie “Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils”. Before that, singer-songwriter Zheng Yinong tried his first attempt at dialect creation and handed over “Mercury Retrograde》 Among them, “Daughter of the New Century” sings encouragement to women in the new century. Both the lyrics and the timeliness reflected in the song are remarkable. Afterwards, Zheng Yinong began his own “Golden Trilogy” creation plan. Regardless of whether it can be sung more popular than “New Creation” and “Can't Say It” sung by Yang Naiwen and Wu Bai, “Golden” takes the unknown pain and love in life as the theme, and opens the topic with “Silence is Gold”, turning the silent scars into beautiful gold. In the current situation of the world that has just experienced the epidemic and is still suffering from economic recession and social turmoil, this hug-like warmth is just right.
Although “Parting Always Comes So Sudden” is the theme song of a movie, it also touches on the theme of people's lives in recent years from another perspective, singing about the separation of life and death that everyone is experiencing.
“Dirty Artist” continues the response to HotDog's doubts in “Yao Zhonger”, singing about himself with a “zhonger” attitude, and also singing to young people who are climbing up in difficult times. I think “The Landlord Upstairs” is the best “non-dirty” work of MC HotDog in recent years. The lyrics are very powerful and the listening experience is also quite comfortable.
After four years, Fish Leong has released a new album, Elk. Compared with the previous album, this album has not changed much. It is still a love song album that meets expectations and has many good songs, but this is the impression that Fish Leong's music has always given people. Maybe it will be the same as the previous album,Am I okay? – The sun rises as usual》, slowly people discovered the treasures in it and gradually it received the recognition it deserved. The first recommendation is “Adults” and “Weather Forecast”.
Huang Qishan released the final chapter of the trilogy “Xiaoxia 3.0” under her real name Xiaoxia, which shifted from talking about life and love to talking about herself. In this inward-looking album, Xiaoxia has completely learned how to restrain her unrestrained and passionate vocal instincts, and shed the early sense of “playing a person with delicate emotions”. With a sincere attitude and restrained expression, she calmly introduces her life as “Xiaoxia”. The theme song “Xiaoxia” may sound like it lacks the hard skills that Huang Qishan has already mastered, but it can easily bring the listener into Xiaoxia's perspective. It is a mature and superb performance that has been honed for ten years.
9m88 (if you don’t know her, her name is pronounced “Joanne Baba”)’s “Sent” is the third solo album from this young artist, following the somewhat bland “9m88 RadioAfter “Sent”, it seems like a return to the stunning debut album “Above Mediocrity》. But unlike the occasional deliberate design in previous albums, 9m88 learned to be natural this time. The lazy and full voice, the popular melody mixed with a little rhythmic charm, is popular enough to be naturally catchy, but not too cliché.
It is similar for Yang Naiwen. In this album, which she led and invited various bands to create, and imagined her as the lead singer of each band, Yang Naiwen seemed to have returned to the time when she released “Silence》After winning the Golden Melody Award, she looked like the rebellious rock cool girl. When I first listened to this album “FLOW”, I felt that the whole album was full of the sounds of various bands, and I didn't seem to hear Yang Naiwen's own style. Later, I accidentally saw someone use AI to synthesize what it would be like if the original lead singers of these bands sang these songs. After listening to a few sentences, I suddenly realized the uniqueness of Yang Naiwen: her voice is not aggressive, but very aggressive. Whenever she appears, her style becomes Yang Naiwen. The lyrics, composition and singing of the album are very complete. It is a very excellent album. In concept, it may be a bit close to Wu Qingfeng's “Mallarmé's Tuesday”, but it is more popular and easy to read, and it is easy to be brought into it.
Yuan Yawei's “In the Innate Imbalance” reveals an urgency to win an award to make herself famous from the production team to the singing performance. As she said, the team needs to be supported and make money, and “Imbalance” is an album that sounds like it should make money. In my mind, the album “The moon is sleepless》 is the album that has the most balanced personal aesthetics and commercial attributes, but it was just born at the wrong time. There are many excellent works in “Unbalanced”, such as the free swing of “Like a River” and the leisurely storytelling in “Big Questions”, but it was only in “Twilight of Idols” that Yuan Yawei seemed to get out of the shell of being kidnapped to sing love songs and freely show some of the things she is good at and likes. If this album can make more people realize Yuan Yawei's excellence, it will be worth it.
Su Yunying's “Circle” is similar. As a musician who has always been free and unrestrained in songwriting and singing, it is difficult to judge what is considered her “quality”.MingDoes it count?Su YunyingIf you listen to her four albums together, you may be surprised at the consistency of her songwriting style, just like the first song “Wild Child” that attracted attention. She sings whatever comes to mind. Whether it can be accepted by the public may depend on whether the arranger can resonate with her creation. In my opinion, 2018's “Illusion》If it was released in other years, it would have been popular long ago, instead of a few songs becoming popular after a few years. Fortunately, there is an arranger like Huang Shaoyong who has a high sense of fashion and sensitivity, so that amazing sentences like “Can there be gaps in a circle? Are mountains made of right angles invincible?” will not be buried for a long time. (Note: Due to regional copyright restrictions, the embedding here is for Apple Music in the United States. The first release in China is exclusive to Meng Xiang's contracted cooperation channel.)
When talking to a friend about Sun Shengxi's “Boomerang”, he said a very essential comment: “This album is good to listen to, but it doesn't sound like a Chinese album.” From the girlish love of “Less Talent” to 2019, Sun Shengxi, who has exploded in creativity, used “Greek Journey》 won the Best Chinese Album Award (that is, the “Fantasy” mentioned above. The albums nominated at the same time included Sandy Lam's “0” and Jolin Tsai's “Ugly Beauty”), and then in 2020 “Where is SHI?“Boomerang” maintains the same high level of creation and is as pleasant to the ear as ever, but the style has returned to her safe zone of R&B. Strictly speaking, “Boomerang” is also a safe card, with some novelty in the style and stable singing skills, which can please everyone's ears. The only problem is that in order to sing smoothly, Sun Shengxi retained a lot of English, Korean, and Chinese in the lyrics. This makes the album very nice and worth listening to, and it is also suitable for getting to know Sun Shengxi – as long as you don't delve into what she is singing, if you think it sounds good, you are welcome to go back to the previous few albums and get into the pit.
Xu Jun is one of the few musicians with a strong rock style in recent years, but his works have always been free between folk, rock and pop, flowing freely with the theme of the song. Perhaps due to his unique growth experience, Xu Jun's music can always be heard questioning life and the hope flowing in it.Dream Company” and “Expectations” have more lighthearted things, and the rare love song melodies in the album are also eye-catching. Part of it is that he can no longer be like the first album “Wansongling》, and the other part is that these songs are the antidote for his anxiety in the past few years. This kind of singer with a clear personal style, his own desire to express himself, and who cannot be framed by a specific style, will only get better and better unless there is a big change.
Jude's third album reveals the same ambition as Yuan Yawei in terms of album arrangement and lineup. This also makes the listening experience and evaluation of this album somewhat polarized. On the one hand, it is an affirmation that Jude's performance is still stable after using a large arrangement and veteran lyrics; on the other hand, it is because he still uses an arrangement that is overly saturated after breaking away from the stage drama concept theme of the previous two songs. question. This makes the entire “Jude” album a bit “noisy” in the middle and later parts. In addition, Jude's compositions have always been known to be difficult to learn and sing, and the complexity of the arrangement is more easily highlighted. But it is undeniable that among the new generation of singer-songwriters, Jude has formed his own clear characteristics, and his melody writing is at his fingertips. It's difficult, but definitely sounds good.
In the field of lyrical pop, it is quite difficult to write new and pleasant melodies now. JJ Lin's 20th anniversary album “Regaining Happiness” last year sounds like too many shadows of past albums. There is almost no breakthrough, and it is safe to the point of being boring. Part of the reason for this is that he had already tried everything he could and couldn't do when he was young, and figured out what he could do to please his fans. But the album itself is definitely good for listeners who love pop music. “Wish and Sorrow” is worth praising separately. In this era, there can still be a serious pop song that becomes popular because of its good composition, and even has a certain degree of popularity, which is an unquestionable manifestation of the skills of the composer and singer.
In addition to Hot Dog, there is also a rap album by Xia Zhiyu, Young Fresh Chin II, which has a deep concept, storyline, writing and listening experience. Set in a small town in Sichuan at the end of the last century, YFC II tells the life story of a second-generation factory youth entering society. It depicts a complete landscape of the life of a small person around the changing background of the time. It is worth mentioning that, whether it is due to Xia Zhiyu's excellent storytelling ability or the universality of the stories reflected in these songs, this album, which was originally supposed to be very limited to a certain region, has also received a lot of praise among overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia and other places.
Eason Chan's “CHIN UP!” is an album that is not well received by the audience. The entire album was produced and composed by Lam Ka-Him, and three of the arrangements were arranged by Li Ronghao – this has become a problem that is often pointed out about this album, and the listeners seem to hear too much Li Ronghao. Eason Chan himself is very satisfied with Li Ronghao's smooth and pleasant guitar arrangement. Moreover, he is not a singer-songwriter. Eason Chan's advantage lies in the delicate emotional portrayal in his voice and the highly stable aesthetics when selecting songs for the album. This is an album centered on fear and dreams, and is the answer to the questions behind the “Fears and Dreams” series of concerts. Both the lyrics and the melody are worth pondering.
As a singer who brought the mainland's popular folk style into the Taiwanese context, Zheng Xing from Suzhou, in 2018,Suddenly one day, I left Taipei》 made its debut. Zheng Xing no longer cares about the “folk song” label, but is more comfortable with creating works that are out of the framework of popular folk songs. The lyrics and music of the third album “Basin” written in Chengdu are more mature and smooth. While Zheng Xing retains his unique and delicate singing style, his lyrics and music creation, sound design and song arrangement have all gotten rid of the shadow of popular folk songs. In this album that records Zheng Xing's three-year life, the opening “Where Do Sparrows Fly” and the ending “The Mystery of Arrival” actually have the appearance of the annual song.
Fools and Idiots in TransitionLong nights and few dreams》 transitioned to the darker and more melancholic style of “Posture”, with the more independent (and less popular) “Year of Fate“The Complete Transformation” is used as a prelude, making the true face of this transformation more like tearing off the past packaging. “Posture” no longer talks about the thoughts of young people, nor does it pretend to be young people with an older age. The main creator Cai Weize starts from his own aesthetics and makes this album of Fools and Idiots have a unique aesthetic among a group of confused and trend-following Chinese music bands. (Note: Due to regional copyright restrictions, the embedding here is Apple Music in Hong Kong. The first release in China is exclusively from Wajijiwa's contracted cooperative channel.)
“Wahhe” is the second full-length album by the 2016 explosive newcomer Caodong No Party. It is not easy for Caodong to make such a high-quality work that “you can tell they are the band” after having made and maintained their own characteristics among a large number of independent rock bands, from being labeled and classified to being used as a reference standard, and experiencing a lot of changes including the death of a member. It is difficult for me to evaluate this album objectively and calmly, because for me, after so many setbacks, they can still make this album “Wahhe”, and I am satisfied.
“Brave New World” by Rupo is an album with a strong retro flavor. This wonderful band is more like a group of music friends playing together. The five members have no fixed positions. Anyone can be the lead singer or the musician. One of the members is Li Quanzhe, a music producer who has been widely praised in recent years. In the album, we can hear the arrangement and style of classic Chinese pop music that we often listened to from the 1990s to the beginning of this century, with stronger rhythm design and R&B flavor, plus humorous lyrics – this album can be used to teach a good lesson to those singers who regard following the old ways as “retro” and are not enterprising.
Su Peiqing's “You'll Live Forever in My Songs” is an all-English creative album. Su Peiqing is a rare harp musician and composer. In her previous music, she often used odd beats and chromatic scales popular in Indian music, which were matched with the elegant timbre of the harp to create a unique sense of conflict and harmony. This album is her “rebirth work” after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020 and underwent more than a year of treatment. Instead of choosing to express her inner feelings with lyrics, Su Peiqing used extremely simple English lyrics and simple and direct arrangements, relying on melodies to compose her process from the pain of diagnosis and initial treatment to the reconstruction of inner order after recovery. This is an album worth listening to quietly from beginning to end. Her personal suffering has become a microcosm in the current time and space, and her personal hope can also infect more people in the same time and space through music.
Last year, there was another new artist who deserves a special mention. Zeng Kechun from Huili, Sichuan, is only 18 years old. He wrote his first full-length album “Nefelibata 2” by himself. The creation period is his three years of high school. Listening to it from beginning to end, you may be amazed at the completeness of his work. When a group of online singers still don't know what they want to express and show with music, this young man can already put his dreams, ideas and experiences into music and make a complete work. Zeng Kechun was also shortlisted for this year's Liu Huan Original Music Charity Fund three-person candidate list, becoming the youngest candidate in history.
Of course, there are more good albums in 2023. If space permits, I can recommend several more to you. But I know that the playlist given to you in this article is enough for you to listen to for a long time. Life is getting busier and busier. Music with huge information density is a good way to help you quickly withdraw from fatigue and numbness and restore your human form. In any case, remember to listen to the music.
Finally, I would like to present to you my personal song of 2023.
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